Acceptance
by Taaki
Summary: Step one, crawl into the Dark Machine. Step two, the screws go tight, all around. Step three, cross your heart and hope to die; stick a needle in your eye. Step four...


She exhaled a bated breath.

She never asked for the three of them to be stuck in the hellhole of a city with reanimated corpses of androids trying to kill them outright, not by order, not by instinct, nothing. Clutching her contact beam in hand, she trudged through the Government Sector again, content to finish what she - no - they had wrought from the remains of her memory. Such small scrap of it apparently so important to what they were working on.

May as well not be for the glory of mankind if it caused all this.

Her spine-mounted vital sign flashed a stark yellow, indicating the injuries she sustained after her escape from the Tower with 2B. Pierced left shoulder, maimed right leg, corroded front armor plates - nothing out of the usual.

"...wait, A2, there's a gunship docked here!" 2B contacted her, voice clearly showing her eagerness to just up and leave the sector.

"There - what?"

"Do you hear that? We can get out of here!"

"Only one of us could. It's dangerous here, 2B."

"What are you talking about? Just get yourself in here and we'll head off to the Bunker to report all this...mess."

A2 couldn't object. As much as she despised the Bunker and the questionable deeds it had done with YoRHa in the past, it was the last hope of mankind if they want them all to survive. Leave with 2B, report back, amass strength, and put an end to the necromorphs once and for all. Only that it'll leave the marker in Sprawl unattended, making it one of the most powerful android-made marker that has been researched and built.

She was desperate to avoid the troubles that had transpired over the years since she defected out of YoRHa to seek refuge, somewhere, somehow. She had sent Anemone only to see her die in the Ishimura, let one of her crew members indirectly destroy an entire fleet of Resistance fighters due to panic, and nearly destroyed a planet. All just because of one ship. ONE ship.

No matter how much she kicked herself until she's beaten to a pulp, she can't forgive herself for doing the first thing that appeared in her memories. Her neural encryption systems trying hard to repress the horrible decision that took its toll on her so much, the one decision that resulted in her friend's death. She knew loss, but this had hurt her so much, which made it not a choice for her to destroy the entire city, instead she thought of it as more of an atonement.

She still can't accept the fact that it all happened. She can't think of anything else. She waited and waited, until she can figure out a sound enough reason to keep everyone she wanted to save alive, yet her only idea was one that's moronic enough to leave her as good as dead inside the total wreck of the city at the end.

Stepping away from the upper levels of the main hall, she slowed down her pace to a walk, seeing 2B fiddle with one gunship's controls. Amid the time 2B was checking the ship's systems, A2 herself was conflicted with her choice, but she needed to do it.

Making her way to the console near the airlock, she tried to immediately release the tethers of the ship, but hesitated for a moment. All her emotions welled up into one inside her head, discontent of the fact that she'll be separated with the force that had kept her going. The feeling that she can save at least one other person. The feeling that she could helped at least someone out of the hell that has been her life for the past four years.

"A2...A2, what are you doing?"

2B asked the other android, receiving nothing in return except heavy breathing and muffled sobs. She stood there in the ship cockpit, watching A2 enter an input into the airlock console, much to her dismay.

"A2! What are you doing?! Get on this ship right now, right NOW!"

"It's not too late, 2B. You got Life Support, Comms... hey, you're about to survive this fucking wreck."

A2 only watched as the ship detached itself from the airlock, effectively leaving her stranded inside the Government Sector by herself without any ally to help and respite to have.

"You bastard..." 2B sobbed.

"I couldn't save Anemone, but I could save you 2B. So...uh. Bye."

A2 stared right towards 2B, witnessing her flying further into deep space, away from her. She mustered up a smile long enough for 2B to only look at her through her RIG-Link with disbelief, not expecting her do to something as substantial as what just happened.

A2 closed the link after the gunship gathered enough distance from her, and she turned around, with what could amount to very small feeling of contentedness stemmed from the fact that she had saved someone in expense of her own. She tried to walk the emotional burden away with any resolve she had to fix everything that happened, all because of memories she didn't know she had in her hyper drives, but she simply couldn't. She slumped down against a wall, not caring about the near-broken condition of her suit which worsened from scraping the titanium wall, before sighing.

It wasn't the best decision of her life, but it did an impact on how she saw the world; torn asunder, ready to be ripped apart by something with such abnormal power that managed to turn even synthetic lifeforms into twisted abberrations.

She was depressed at the thought of it, that much she knew.

"A2."

"Anemone..."

"Can we talk?"

"Why? So I can let you go too? I can't do that, Anemone. I'll always be your friend."

"Sacrifices have to be made, A2, and the cost only one bitter part of it."

A2 felt a sting of realization at the sudden repeat of words from the faux-Anemone. She might have not been able to save her friend a few years back, but doing what must be done is more important, in the grand scheme of the disaster. It's no longer about YoRHa, it's no longer about Sprawl. Now it's her chance to attempt stopping the marker research on the forsaken rock.

The moment her determination sets itself in, she rose up and decided to put all the events that had transpired before her. She needed the focus, and she promised herself that it'll all end before everything gets worse.

She still remembered Anemone, her apparition sitting on the ground beside where she stood, looking at her. Face void of expressions, though it spoke volumes about herself.

"A2, please, make us whole..."

Was all that the faux-Anemone could say.

She wanted so badly to just hug Anemone again, to be with her friend after so long. But dwelling on the past wasn't what she wanted.

She tried to speak out loud, but she choked on her own words. It tasted bitter to leave everyone again, and the familiarity of it disturbed her.

She fumbled for anything she could say. That she missed her so much, that she longed for her to be back, that she would give her all just for their friendship again, for her to return. It was all pointless.

"I can't."

A2 re-formed her malfunctioning riot helmet and walked away from the apparition, mind devoid of anything other than what could be her last objective; to completely obliterate the marker that has been driving the entirety of Sprawl insane.

Before she completely left the balcony, Commander White suddenly came up on her RIG-Link, seemingly ready to spit vitriol right onto her again, and yet she wasn't wrong.

"I don't know what Providence protects you, A2, but it ends here. I have two hundred armed security personnel - EVERY ENTRANCE IS COVERED. Even if you do get in you _won't_ get far."

"Try me, fuckface," A2 scoffed, each word practically dripping with venom contrary to what she was like before, earning herself an extremely angered look from her former commander.

"A2, you selfis-" A2 closed the link, having enough of her own commander's wrongdoings to even care talking to her once more.

And so she ran in, her outlook on living a calm life changing ever so slowly.


End file.
